I want to give a shoutout to AT&T for sponsoring the Texting & Driving … It Can Wait website and for hiring an award-winning filmmaker to produce the 34-minute PSA It Can Wait.

The PSA focuses on four separate stories of lives, both victims and perpetrators, that were changed in an instant. It’s not easy viewing, but given the alarming statistics of people killed or severely injured each year by drivers who were texting, I strongly recommend it not only to young drivers (the largest percentage involved in texting while driving accidents) but to all those who might be tempted to text while behind the wheel.

In my current job as a technology integration specialist for a K-12 district, I’m part of a team tasked with ensuring that digital citizenship is being taught at all school sites (meeting CIPA E-Rate requirements). Beyond the school day, I co-curate the Digital ID wiki, a collaborative project that provides students with a global microphone for sharing content on four main issues of digital citizenship: cyberbullying awareness and response, building digital footprints, respecting intellectual property, and protecting online privacy.

Twenty-four hours after my first viewing of It Can Wait, I’m still thinking about where this epidemic misuse of social media might fall on the digital citizenship spectrum. But whether texting while driving is addressed within a digital citizenship program or as a stand alone topic – it can’t wait.

The  PSA’s message to put your phone away while driving is so compelling, from start to finish, sharing it with students could have a life-changing and, hopefully, a life-saving impact.